Air Force, Navy step up efforts to ferry oxygen

New Delhi: The C-17 aircraft of Indian Air Force have conducted 400 sorties from within the country, including 351 to airlift 252 oxygen tankers of a total capacity of 4,904 Metric Tonnes (MT), till Friday. Both the Air Force and the Indian Navy have intensified their efforts to aid the civil administration in tackling the grim Covid situation in the country by ferrying oxygen containers and medical equipment.

The cities the Air Force has covered include Jamnagar, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Panagarh, Indore, Ranchi, Agra, Jodhpur, Begumpet, Bhubaneswar, Pune, Surat, Raipur, Udaipur, Mumbai, Lucknow, Nagpur, Gwalior, Vijaywada, Baroda, Dimapur and Hindan.

The IAF aircraft also conducted 59 international sorties to airlift 72 cryogenic oxygen storage containers of 1,233 MT total capacity along with 1,252 empty oxygen cylinders. The containers and cylinders were procured from Singapore, Dubai, Bangkok, the UK, Germany, Belgium and Australia.